Diversity At Work In The Courtroom

Today was one of those exciting days that we all experience when we are summoned for JURY DUTY! It turned out to be quite a good experience and I was selected to be on the jury and then elected foreman of the jury. Of course, being the rednecks that we were, we convicted the guy in 8 seconds...

Before the jury selection process began I noticed the wonderful DIVERSITY that we are seeing in America today. Here was the makeup of the jury pool:

23 White men

6 White women

1 Black woman

1 Indian man

3 Asian women

1 Hispanic lesbian *

* Before you get all bent out of shape, I know this for a fact because of her men's boots, men's haircut, men's jeans, the gay flag on her man-purse, and the "Lesbian Pride" wife-beater shirt that she was wearing. At least she was partaking of the diversity...

Of course they demanded that we all be there by 8:30 a.m. and then nothing even happened until 9:12. There were three people who were late... the 3 Asian women.

I thought today was a great lesson in diversity--and a lesson that if you are going to commit a crime it would be probably be best that you don't do it in Plano.

Our Prayers And Condolences For The Longbotham Family

Lauren Longbotham-Meisner

SMU Women's Coach

From time to time there are tragedies that affect our "tennis family" and such is the case for the Jim Longbotham family in Groesbeck, Texas. Jim's daughter, Courtney, was killed in an auto accident in Austin yesterday and our tennis family extends their love and condolences. Another of Jim's daughters, Lauren, is the head women's tennis coach at SMU and Jim is the tennis coach at Groesbeck High School.

I first met Courtney at Lauren's wedding--and what a delight she was! She always seem to light up a room with her personality and love. She will truly be loved and missed by many who have been privileged to know her over the years.

To Jim and his family we want to say we love you and are praying for you during your time of sorrow. We can't always find a reason for tragedies but we can always trust in God's love, presence, and healing.

Someone once told me that when a child of God leaves this life, that they move from our "past" into our "future." There will be a day when you see Courtney again...

Courtney Longbotham

Services for Courtney will be on Wednesday, September 29, at 2:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Groesbeck, Texas. Visitation will be Tuesday, September 28, at 6:00 p.m. at the Groesbeck Funeral Home (1215 E. Yeagua, Groesbeck.)

"Live Fire" in Waco--A Great Success!

Randy McDonald & Myron Krueger surveying the courts as they drink Diet RC and talk on their cell phones.

The "Live Fire" officials training at Baylor University was held this past weekend in conjunction with a major ITA men's tournament at the site--and it was a rousing success! Here are the officials who participated in the training:

Rick Gabel (Austin)

Ron Salazar (Denver)

Mary Lynn Satur (DFW)

John Garza (San Antonio)

Denise Offerdahl (Austin)

Chuck Emerich (Houston)

Gayle Land (San Antonio)

Ron Whitson (DFW)

Ray Perme (San Antonio)

All of these officials did a fantastic job in their training--and now they're ready to go out and work everywhere...

A special thanks to Baylor University and their coach, Matt Knoll, for hosting the training. Its great when you see a major university commit to helping the cause of tennis officiating.

Randy McDonald and Joyce Grant working a men's doubles match at 10:30 p.m. with hordes of crickets everywhere! Please note the posture of Ms. Grant!

My How Times Have Changed!

The new look of players in 2010. Can you imagine BJK is this outfit?

And now you know how he hits the ball so dang hard.

The new look of guy players.

The bicep of today.

Ladies version of today's bicep.

And then there is this! Notice the LACK of a bicep.

And even worse...

Hopefully we will never have to endure seeing him without a shirt.

Just imagine what Nadal would do to him today.

A Few More Dog Pictures

I've got to suck up to the right people in order to climb the ladder to success.

Picture of a contented official.

Normally I do not specifically answer a blog post but I thought I would post the one I received this morning about dogs. Here you go:

"You forgot the picture of the dog peeing on the other less fortunate one as well as the dog biting the head off of one of his lesser fellows. That would be much more fitting for tennis officials, especially those working the professional ranks."

I found a few dog pictures that I thought might be appropriate.

Just looking to bite the one who stole my assignment.

I couldn't find the official I was mad at so I'll just pee on their computer...

Found her!

Parallels With The Dog Universe

"I was late because my Dad didn't wake me up."

The more I am involved in the tennis officiating world the more I think we're like the DOG WORLD. Here are some pooches that remind me of some officials that I know...

"I hate waiting in line to do anything."

"That loose ball has to be somewhere."

"Good job! You might get to do Big 12 matches next year."

"I wanted to be ready in case I got to chair the #1 singles match."

"I have to hurry, hurry, hurry to make a good impression."

"I had to work a 12 hour shift at the ZAT tournament and I'm pooped!"

"I thought it would quit raining if we started squeegeing (sp)"

"I have a question about what you just ruled on that court."

And as the sun sets, we all believe in diversity...

Ingredients Of A Good Blog

During a normal day I usually read between 30 to 40 different blogs on a huge variety of subjects. Some are good, some are bad, and some are kind of in between. I try to learn from the good ones, laugh at the medium ones, and pray for the bad ones...

Our blog is a few years old now and its been one of the most enjoyable experiences of my long, long life. When one owns a blog, I think there are responsibilities that go along with it so I thought I would print a list of ingredients that I think are vital to a good blog. I'm sure you might have more but here are a few of the KEY INGREDIENTS OF A GOOD BLOG:

1. Truth and integrity. Always be sure that what you print is truthful and be sure to check your sources.

2. Humor. If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at. Of course the tennis officiating world is packed with great events of humor.

3. Politics. Politics is like garlic--just a little bit is all you need. I try to keep it a minimum but sometimes it just gets the best of me. The good part of owning a blog is that you get to print what you think is the right political view--and then give just a little bit of room for the opposition.

4. Information. Strive to keep the people informed about events, decisions, and activities that are peculiar to your blog; i.e. tennis officiating.

5. Freshness and vitality. Try to stay on top of the latest issues and events. Its always fun to see people run when I show up with my camera. Down deep I think a lot of them enjoy seeing themselves in print.

6. Discernment. Not all things that happen in life need to be printed on a blog--but some are really good and we all enjoy a good laugh.

7. Constant quest for "betterness." I wasn't sure how to explain this one but it means to always work toward making the blog better, more informative, and more enjoyable.

8. Unafraid of tackling big issues. From time to time, big issues arise in our tennis officiating world. Sometimes I share my own personal opinions, sometimes I let you share yours, and sometimes its good to just STIR THE POT...

9. Have a thick skin. Not all comments are nice and uplifting and some are downright mean and vicious. Learn to appreciate the good ones and pray for the ones who write the evil ones.

These are just a few thoughts... The main thing is to be a blog that is enjoyable and fun!

Ode To The Much Maligned And Abused Eraser

A picture of the remnants of the much-loved pencil whose only sin was having an eraser as it dwelt in Jerusalem on the Brazos.

A picture of a very happy pencil with its eraser intact.

Very seldom do I refer back to previous events in previous tournaments but this is too good...

In years past there was a small incident concerning pencils with erasers. As I was reading through the FAC I found this interesting statement on page 141:

"Your supplies should include a stopwatch, measuring device, and ERASER-EQUIPPED PENCILS."

I will leave the rest to your greatly enhanced thought processes and you can feel free to draw whatever conclusions you feel correct.

A Code For The Whole Family

The tennis family from Hell.

As we travel around the tennis officiating world we always hear some great stories--and here is a good one...

Seems that one of our newer officials was standing between two courts of teenage girls as they battled for the prizes--and one of the fathers got involved. The Dad proceeded to come out onto the court and tell the official that if he didn't code the girl his daughter was playing that he would "turn him in" and then began shouting and pointing his finger in the official's face.

At that point the official told the father to leave the court and if he didn't behave that he would "code the whole family"!!! I thought this was a great statement but when we realized there were 6 members of the family, all kind of ramifications began to pop into my head...

The way I see it, there were these options for our well-meaning official:

1. Code each family member with a point penalty which would mean a 6 point code.

2. Do a point, game, default penalty to three of the family members and then give another set of point, game, and default.

3. Realize that he really can't code the whole family and call for the police to come remove them from the site.

4. Play like it never happened and move on to some other courts--hoping that the father would leave him alone.

Which of the four options do you think is best???

Things The Pros Should Learn

Thou shalt keep thine eyes upon the ball lest it smite you dreadfully.

The Bible teaches us that if we will train up a child in the way that he should that when he is old, he will not depart from it. Here are some vital Biblical lessons that we hope our pro tennis players learn:

Thou shalt not scratch thine private parts in public.

(Andy Roddick)

A woman shall always wear garments that are not see-through.

(Venus Williams)

Thou shalt not stretch thine garments when thou art frustrated.

(Andy Murray)

Thou shalt never uncover thine posterior in public.

(Alex Corretja)

Things You Learn As An Official

Any time I do a tournament I find that I always learn something new. Here are things I learned this weekend:

F.B.I.

Not the agency of protection in America but FIRST BALL IN when serving in a match. Four 2.5 ladies taught me this one!

THREE RULE CHANGES IN TENNIS

Someone pointed out to me today that there basically have only been THREE RULE CHANGES in the history of tennis. They are:

1. You can have your feet off the ground when you hit your serve.

2. A double hit is legal.

3. The introduction of the tiebreaker.

Interesting concept. Not sure I agree but I can't remember enough to disagree...

Playing In The Wind

Tennis has been great at this year's Open but the one interesting sideline is to see that the pros seem to have such a difficult time playing in the wind...

I grew up in Corpus Christi (where the wind always blows at least 25 mph) and in the Rio Grande Valley (where it blows at least 40 mph in the spring) so I know that you actually CAN play in the wind. It was either play in the wind or not play at all since there were no indoor courts.

I thought it interesting the other night when one of the commentators said, "I can't believe they are having to play in these impossible conditions. The winds are gusting up to 25 mph."

Sounds like a lot of whining about conditions that people in Oklahoma and Texas (especially West and South Texas) play in all of the time.

Maybe they should move the Open to indoor courts so they won't have this problem...

Congratulations To The Bryan Brothers

Congratulations to the Bryan brothers for winning their third US Open Men's Doubles title and their ninth overall Grand Slam doubles title. Bob also won the Mixed Doubles title so its been a good week for the Bryans.

Update On Myron Krueger

Myron Krueger

Many of you have asked for an update on the condition of our own illustrious and incomparable Myron Krueger--so here you so.

He is healing up nicely. His collarbone was broken in three places but is now all set and healing up (just not as quickly as Myron would like.) He still has a real sore and bruised leg which at least keeps him from hopping on his bicycle again...

He's back at work now but not playing tennis yet.

Hope this helps.

Fashion Police At The US Open

NADIA PETROVA

We had to update our post with this gosh-awful outfit!

BILLIE JEAN KING

Old and wrinkled in pink is still old and wrinkled.

VENUS WILLIAMS

This was her best at the French. Just waiting to see if she wears it in NYC.

VENUS WILLIAMS

Great outfit with all the sparkles!

MARIA SHARAPOVA

Looks great in anything she wears.

ANA IVANOVIC

Pure class.

CAROLINE WOZNIACKI

She needs to take this one back to the store where she got it.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC

Always has the best of the men's stuff.

BRYAN BROTHERS

T-shirts are still in for these boys.

RAFAEL NADAL

Chooses the best of the flourescents.

JANKO TIPSAREVIC

Great combination for a guy.

GAEL MONFILS

Terrible. Someone needs to tell him that armpits are out in 2010.